This is a big fat 1 star from me, because UNANNOUNCED BESTIALITY IS A JUST DO. NOT. DO. IT!

If you just feel that you absolutely must put bestiality into your book, WARN ME FIRST so I can back away quickly and without the creepy-crawly feeling.

I’m displeased enough to almost break my own rules and actually rate this on the major sites.

I can’t believe I’m the only one who is displeased by this unmentioned explicit wolf-mounts-woman ‘dream’… but it seems that way. No one even mentioned it in the reviews!

Ugh, seriously? First time I’ve asked for money back on a Kindle book. Whatever, if you just have to put in some explicit bestiality. BUT WARN US FIRST so we can make a choice not to read about it.

Gak.
Even amongst those of us who enjoy werewolf, vampire, etc. type of stories, WARN US about bestiality, snuff, and various other extreme forms of sexuality. Even BDSM people have the courtesy to warn us… but bestiality?!? Come on!

*sigh*

I won’t break my rule and post this to the major sites. But I will warn people this way.

I know I’m supposed to use the sandwich method, but I really just like to get the bad news out of the way, and move on to the good stuff, you know? Then you get to be left in the end with the dessert taste rather than the brussel sprouts… So here goes nothing.

The things that I didn’t like about this book were:

1. Some misused words. Weary where it should have been wary, as an example. No offense to the author; I blame this one on the school system, in all honesty. At 40, English lessons and spelling lessons were very different in my youth. So it’s hard to be tough on an author about little things like that, especially when these are things I blame more on the editors and proofreaders. A rant for another day and time, that… believe me. So this is a very minor thing through this book, and not nearly enough to take even a half star off the rating, IMO. It’s minor comparatively.

2. Tattoos. Not my thing. This is just personal preference, though, so no harm, no foul.

3. The whole ‘frenzied jealousy’ thing so is not my scene. I appreciate that it’s all the rage right now, but it’s so obsessive-stalker-ish. I understand the heroine’s feelings in this case. She’s insecure for understandable reasons. But the standardized jealous dude thing is sort of creepy. This again, though, is personal preference. I was married to Mr. Macho stalker-obsessive-compulsive-jealous type and he was just unbelievably evil.

4. Still haven’t figured out who the hell Greta is. Just one of those things that was sort of there, and was talked about like I shoulda known who she was. But I never did really figure it out. Mystery figure is mysterious…

Again, though, number 3 just seems to be the flavor of the fad for shifter/supernatural fictions. So I certainly don’t hold it against E.R. in this case.

Now, you might be tempted to say, “So, that was really rough. I guess you hated the book, right??”

My answer to that is a stern and certain, “No.” I really, really enjoyed the book. And I’d give it a solid 5 stars. I don’t believe it takes perfection to reach 5 stars. The book’s well-written, and it has a solid and worthy plot. Most of my discomfort [which was extremely mild] came from the personal preference issues as stated above.

I enjoyed our heroine and I liked her a lot. She was perfectly imperfect. The romance was much better than the usual, “oh, look, we’re mates, let’s fuck like minks RIGHT NOW, RIGHT NOW, RIGHT NOW!” stuff. Not that they took eternity to get there, but they did have courtship and some normal intimacy issues. Haha, what a statement about our world, that intimacy issues are normal. :p

Ceithin was likable as well. I enjoyed watching him make an idiot of himself in ways that actually kind of made sense. Too many heroes make asses of themselves in ways that just leave you going… seriously, dude?? Really?? But Ceithin was putting forth the effort to be gallant and have integrity.

I liked the whole telepathy thing, and how it played into other areas. The villain is well done, in my opinion, and the villain’s helper was enough of a surprise to please me. That didn’t play out predictably, and that’s a pretty big deal.

I also enjoyed the small details the writer put into it. She did a great job with bringing in so many minor things that you wouldn’t really think about [like the brother’s masturbatory status…. er]. These things seem superfluous, but they actually give humanity to the characters. Ironic since they’re werewolves. :p

It was also nice that she did put them in there, but didn’t overdo it. The book could easily have really lagged along if she’d done much more explaining and background. It’s a fine line that she walked well.

The other surprise with another character certainly threw me for the biggest loop. Totally unexpected, and my personal jury is still kind of out on that. I think it could have borne better explanation, but it was indeed super kewl anyway. So I’ll take it for what it is.

This book gains a solid 5-er from me. The few negatives are relatively minor, and more personal preference than writing or plot issues. No plot holes I could drive a Hummer through, and not so much sex that I had to search for a plot (another personal preference–not a huge fan of erotica-with-a-pretense-at-a-plot).

I generally won’t review or rate other people’s books on official sites like Goodreads or Amazon unless I can give it five stars comfortably. Giving negative reviews or ratings on those sites just makes me feel wrong; like a politician trying to win by throwing around the other guy’s dirt. Listen, we all have dirt, and that’s not the right way to win, if you ask me.

Granted, you didn’t… but I’m saying it anyway. :p

So that’s why I don’t do reviews out there in the public eye in a way that it’ll effect sales for the other person. If nothing else, let’s face it… every novel written is done so with love. Or at least, most are. Novel writing is a huge endeavor, and I think it’s pretty few and far between that people who do it, are doing so just for money. It’s a tough fight to the top and even then, there are easier ways to make money.

So a negative review is crapping on someone’s livelihood. It’s taking a big dump on their hopes, their dreams, and that bit of themselves that they poured into the novel. In general, I don’t like to do either one.

That being said, sometimes, some books make me want to say something. Sometimes, they make me want to clap and stomp my feet and yell with joy. Sometimes they make me want to just cover my head and try to staunch the bleeding from my eyes. Rarely, they make me want brain bleach. Like, badly.

Now, as a writer, I’m not in much of a position to make these statements. My books aren’t perfect, and they have no doubt made a few people want brain bleach. Bless their hearts.

And I’ll say this. I write these with the full knowledge that I’m a hypocrite. I don’t enjoy getting “omg this book sukz” comments. None of us do. And I’ll try to avoid ever saying it like that. But sometimes, I really feel a need to get things off of my chest.

I’m going to do it here. And if you want to tell me that I’m a hypocrite, feel free. I’ll agree with you. But I’ll still say what I have to say. When the mood takes me, that is…